Indirect genetic effects contribute substantially to heritable variation in aggression-related traits in group-housed mink (Neovison vison)

Table 5 Estimated variance components (±SE) from a traditional animal model ignoring IGE (model 3) ¹

Parameter	Neck BMS	Body BMS	Tail BMS	Total BMS	Weight (Kg)
${\hat{σ}}_{A}^{2}$	0.62 ± 0.15	1.06 ± 0.22	0.95 ± 0.19	7.26 ± 1.38	0.06 ± 0.015
$^{2} \hat{ρ}$	0.28 ± 0.047	0.26 ± 0.04	0.17 ± 0.028	0.26 ± 0.04	-0.15 ± 0.09
$^{2} {\hat{ρ}}_{s}$	0.05 ± 0.054	-0.09 ± 0.05	-0.17 ± 0.03	-0.09 ± 0.05	0.40 ± 0.19
${\hat{σ}}_{e_{m}}^{2}$	1.18 ± 0.12	2.74 ± 0.22	2.31 ± 0.20	11.4 ± 1.14	0.026 ± 0.008
${\hat{σ}}_{e_{f}}^{2}$	2.93 ± 0.22	3.53 ± 0.27	5.98 ± 0.34	22.4 ± 1.72	0.03 ± 0.009
$^{3} {\hat{σ}}_{P}^{2}$	3.54 ± 0.11	4.95 ± 0.24	5.31 ± 0.18	31.09 ± 1.00	0.011 ± 0.005
${\hat{h}}^{2}$	0.18 ± 0.04	0.21 ± 0.08	0.18 ± 0.036	0.23 ± 0.04	0.57 ± 0.13
${\hat{c}}^{2}$	-	-	-	-	0.07 ± 0.05

¹Model 3 was y = Xb + Z_D a_D + Wg + Vg * s + e; ²although cage and cage*sex covariances were fitted, the result is expressed as the non-genetic correlation between phenotypes of cage mates, $\hat{ρ} = \frac{{\hat{σ}}_{g}^{2}}{{\hat{σ}}_{g * s}^{2} + {\hat{σ}}_{g}^{2} + 0.5 ({\hat{σ}}_{e_{_{m}}}^{2} + {\hat{σ}}_{e_{f}}^{2})}$ , and as the non-genetic correlation between phenotypes of cage mates of the same sex, ${\hat{ρ}}_{s} = \frac{{\hat{σ}}_{g * s}^{2}}{{\hat{σ}}_{g * s}^{2} + {\hat{σ}}_{g}^{2} + 0.5 ({\hat{σ}}_{e_{_{m}}}^{2} + {\hat{σ}}_{e_{f}}^{2})}$ ; ³for BMS, phenotypic variance was estimated from a separate analysis using the model y = Xb + e, this was done because our objective was to present a single number for phenotypic variance and heritability, covering both sexes, since a single genetic variance was fitted covering both sexes; however, since our aim was to estimate the other model terms with the best fitting model, a separate analysis for phenotypic variance was performed; the standard errors of heritability estimates were calculated from the full model, averaging the residual variances for both sexes; ${\hat{c}}^{2} = \frac{{\hat{σ}}_{n_{d}}^{2}}{{\hat{σ}}_{p}^{2}}$ , ${\hat{σ}}_{n_{d}}^{2}$ refers to the non-genetic dam variance; ${\hat{c}}^{2}$ refers to the non-genetic maternal effect.

ISSN: 1297-9686